Forms extensive thickets which disrupt water flow in channels and displace and suppress the regeneration of native wetland plants. In Brazil, dense infestations have caused the localized extinction of Peripatus acacioi Marcus and Marcus (Onychophora), a rare invertebrate, in a nature reserve established to protect it (Soares and Barreto, 2008). White ginger is a threat to Clermontia samuelii Forbes (Campanulaceae) and Labordia tinifolia A. Gray var. lanaiensis Sherff. (Loganiaceae), two endemic plant species on the Maui Nui group of islands in the Hawaiian Islands (USFWS, 1999). In St Lucia it may be replacing the rare indigenous orchid Habenaria monorrhiza [Sw] Rchb.f (Orchidaceae) (Krauss, 2012). The plant is also toxic.